Events: Overhauled

Time for another big update to BluestNight! In this episode, the events system
has been overhauled to look nicer and provide more functionality than
previously. Also, a some other semantic changes to watch out for while
updating.

Events

Events have been changed from data to content files, to better give visitors
information about any events held by the owner of the site. Visitors can now
visit pages for previous events and see what is coming past the five most
immediate events.

Before

The previous method of doing events involved data files with
information relating to the events. Those data files were then parsed and
assembled into an iCalendar file; the five most immediate
upcoming events were also put into the sidebar of the website for easy
viewing.

After

The iCalendar file and sidebar reminders are still there, but the sidebar
widget has been reformatted slightly to display more information in a
clearer fashion. Because events are now content pages, the sidebar widget
now also links each event preview to the page for that event.

Semantic Changes

Another possibly breaking change in BluestNight is the assumption that section
names are plural, i.e. /events/ and /posts/. This should only affect the
two sections used as examples, as BluestNight doesn’t care about the others.

In an effort to be backwards-compatible, the home page and recent posts widget
will still show content from /post/, though /posts/ will be preferred if
found.

The reason for this change is to try to align more closely to Hugo’s convention
of sections and content types being pluralized.

Other Changes

As well as the above, the page metadata section has seen some love, with the
following changes:

Metadata labels (“Published”, “Last Updated”, “Estimated Reading Time”)
have been bolded to provide contrast between them and the metadata itself.

“Last Updated” is only displayed if the .Lastmod date is different from
the normal .Date.